Thursday, October 11, 2012

IOM Report 2012: Calling All Lifelong Learners



The Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its latest report last month on the healthcare system. While this may not be the most exciting thing you’ve heard all week, allow me to recast this bureaucratic, lengthy report in a much brighter light.

The report (which can be found here) is titled Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America. I found the 5-page report brief to be incredibly informative, succinct, and relevant to what we are learning here in our DNP program, and to the challenges we face while participating in patient care. In essence, the report highlights the inefficiencies and lack of quality with which healthcare is currently delivered in this country, and sets out specific recommendations to produce a more adaptive and efficient system. Let me briefly discuss what I found to be the three essential components recommended for our current healthcare system.

A comprehensive use of technology. Using technology tools in healthcare, such as EHRs and patient portals, are no longer considered optional. In order to continuously and effectively adapt to the complex and changing system of healthcare—which is made up of complex and changing patients—we must utilize the affordable and convenient tools that are available to us. This means creating patient portals where patients and clinicians can share knowledge, resources, and other information. It means connecting with clinical databases that offer real-time clinical decision-making support. It also means capturing all data—including patient and financial outcomes—electronically, in order to continuously assess the healthcare processes and make changes more quickly.

Patients as an integral part of the healthcare team. Patient inclusion and empowerment is, thankfully, a growing trend in healthcare discussions. In this report, the IOM repeatedly references patients as being an essential part of the clinical decision making process. Treatment plans should be tailored to the individual needs and preferences of each individual patient. Patients should be encouraged to use patient portals for education, communication with providers, and sharing of data that can be used to evaluate patient reported outcomes. In response to the call for greater use of technology, it is even proposed that technology developers create digital tools that can further empower patients in managing their own care.

An open culture of learning. The cultural wisdom is clear and we all know it is true: The best experts in any field are the ones who are lifelong learners. The unending thirst for knowledge can be instilled in practitioners through their education programs, which should offer students the most current knowledge and skills in accessing, managing, and applying evidence for practice. However, the workplace culture is what must continue to support this quest for knowledge by offering a safe place for questioning, adapting, and collaborating. Healthcare leaders (which includes us) need to embody the qualities of respectfulness, transparency, and inquisitiveness in order to foster a culture of lifelong learning.

For there is only one constant in the complexity and chaos of healthcare: Change

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